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5 Centimes
| Issuer | Union des Commerçants de Bougie (Commune of Bougie, Department of Constantine) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916-1918 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Plain letterpress reverse printed in red on cream paper, with clipped corners matching the obverse. The word "MEMORANDUM" appears in bold red capitals at the top, below which the denomination "5 Centimes" is set in a larger letterpress typeface at centre. A handwritten ink inscription appears in the lower portion of the note. |
| Reverse lettering | MEMORANDUM 5 Centimes |
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| Comments |
Bougie — now Béjaïa, Algeria — produced a wave of small-denomination emergency paper during the First World War as coinage vanished from circulation across France and its territories. The Union des Commerçants, a local merchants' association, stepped in where the colonial banking system could not, issuing fractional notes backed by nothing more formal than collective commercial reputation. These chamber-of-commerce-style nécessités were a common workaround across French Algeria between 1914 and 1918, but the Bougie series remains among the more obscure provincial issues from the Constantine department.
Survival rate is low — small-denomination wartime paper of purely local utility was rarely preserved.